Rich vs Poor: 14 Funny Statistics And 14 Not So Funny Statistics About This “Economic Recovery”

Today there are two very different Americas. In one America, the stock market is soaring, huge bonuses are taken for granted, the good times are rolling and people are spending money as if they will be able to “live the dream” for the rest of their lives. In the other America, the one where most of the rest of us live, unemployment is rampant, a million families were kicked out of their homes last year and hordes of American families are drowning in debt. The gap between the rich and the poor is bigger today than it ever has been before. In fact, this article is not so much about “rich vs poor” as it is about “the rich vs the rest of us”. Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke keep touting an “economic recovery”, but the truth is that the only ones that seem to be benefiting from this recovery are those at the very top of the economic food chain.

Below you will find 14 funny statistics about this economic recovery and 14 not so funny statistics about this economic recovery. Actually, if you find yourself deeply struggling in this economy you will probably not find any of the statistics funny. In fact, you will probably find most of them infuriating. After all, there are very few people that actually enjoy hearing about how well the rich are doing when they are barely able to pay the mortgage and put food on the table.

In any event, the 28 statistics below show the stark contrast between the “two Americas” that share this nation today. Many liberals will likely try to use these statistics as an example of why we should tax the rich. But handing more money to the government is not going to magically create more jobs for the poor. What the American people desperately need are good jobs, and many liberals don’t seem to understand that. Many conservatives will likely try to use these statistics as evidence that “capitalism” is working. But the truth is that what we have in the United States today is not capitalism. Rather, it is more aptly described as “corporatism”, because money and power is increasingly becoming concentrated in the hands of gigantic corporations that individuals and small businesses simply cannot compete with. The truth is that when wealth is concentrated at the very top it does not “trickle down” to the rest of us. In the old days the wealthy at least were forced to hire the rest of us to run their factories and their businesses, but with the advent of globalism that isn’t even true anymore. Now they can just move their factories and businesses overseas to places where they can legally pay slave labor wages to their employees.

Very large concentrations of money and power are almost always bad for the prosperity of average citizens. Our founding fathers never intended for our central government to have so much power and they never intended for giant corporations to have so much power. But we have abandoned the principles of our founding fathers.

When large concentrations of power (whether governmental or corporate) are allowed to flourish, it almost becomes inevitable that the gap between the rich and the poor will grow. We are seeing this happen all over the world today.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that any of this is going to change any time soon. In the United States, both the federal government and multinational corporations are constantly attempting to grab even more power. It has gotten to the point where individual Americans really don’t have much power left at all.

In any event, hopefully you will find the following statistics informative or at least entertaining. The wealthy are most definitely enjoying an “economic recovery” while most of the rest of us are still really struggling….